The present invention relates generally to material handling systems having address-based networks, and more particularly to automatic address assignment in the material handling system network.
Conveyor systems are used in a wide variety of material handling applications. These include such things as conveying luggage throughout airports, conveying parcels through transportation terminals, conveying manufactured parts or components throughout factories, conveying inventory, sorting and conveying items to be transported, and various other applications. Such material handling systems may use conveyors having endless belts that are rotated around end rollers to cause the top surface of the belt to move in the direction of conveyance. Such material handling systems alternatively may use conveyors having a series of rollers, selected ones of which are driven to cause articles positioned on the rollers to move in the direction of conveyance. An example of one such roller conveyor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,909 issued to Kalm et al., entitled MODULAR POWER ROLLER CONVEYOR, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Still other types of conveyors may use movable slats to transport articles, as well as other structures.
The installation and commissioning of prior material handling systems is a time consuming labor-intensive process. The design and installation of prior material handling systems has often involved a great deal of custom engineering of the system in order to make the system match the physical layout of the customer's site, as well as match the conveying needs of the customer. Such custom engineering not only includes the physical aspects of the individual conveyors making up the system, but also the programming and control logic that is used to control the overall system.
The assignment of addresses to devices of the network is currently a labor intensive means. A conventional system may utilize physically setting the addresses of each device, for example, with a dip switch. The process becomes time consuming and cumbersome with material handling systems that have a greater number of components and devices or are physically larger and more complex.
Reducing material costs, the amount of time and labor involved in these tasks is highly desirable.